Polyphenols are widely distributed in plants and a major class of secondary plant products. More than 5000 different polyphenols have been identified and the estimated number of polyphenols in nature is most likely much higher than that due the complexity of the class of compounds. In general polyphenols are found in plants as free polyphenol monomers (e.g. flavanols, flavanons, flavons, anthocyanidins) or as conjugated tannins such as hydrolyzable tannins, derived tannins or condensed tannins and proanthocyanidins.
Many health benefits of tea, fruits and vegetables are attributed to polyphenols. For example, green tea polyphenols, are valued due to their proven antioxidative, antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic and hypocholesteremic effects as well as their potential to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Tea polyphenols are generally well characterised in the literature. It has been reported that 200 ml green tea contains up to 140 mg (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), 65 mg (−)-epigallocatechin (EGC), 28 mg (−)-epicatechin gallate (ECG) and 17 mg (−)-epicatechin. The high content of galloyl-units was shown to be correlated with apoptosis induced in prostate and breast cancer cells and the inhibition of the fatty acid synthase enzyme.
The enzyme fatty acid synthase (FAS) is an important enzyme that is involved in energy metabolism in-vivo and has been shown to be related to various human diseases.
Based on investigations, two enzyme systems have been identified that are referred to as types 1 and 2. Type 1 FAS is found in higher animals and yeasts whereas type 2 occurs predominantly in plants and bacteria. Animal FAS is composed of two identical multifunctional polypeptide chains, each containing six discrete functional domains with enzymatic activity. FAS synthesizes de-novo mainly palmitinic acid from the substrates acetyl-coenzyme A (Ac-CoA), malonyl-coenzyme A (Mal-CoA) and NADPH according to following reaction scheme:Ac—CoA+7 Mal-CoA+14 NADPH+14H+→Palmitinic Acid+14 NADP++6H2O+8 CoA—SH+7 CO2 
FAS is located in most animal tissues and in high amounts in the liver. Under normal conditions FAS activity in tissue is down-regulated due to sufficient dietary fat available. In various pathophysiological conditions, i.e. malignancies in colon, prostate, breast, endometrium or ovary carcinoma, the FAS activity was shown to be up-regulated to surprisingly high levels. Hence, inhibition of FAS that was found to be associated with reduction of tumour growth and apoptosis of malignant cells, might serve as a valuable target for treatment of cancer.
Recent studies also showed that FAS inhibition can reduce food intake and body weight in mice. It was further shown that de-novo lipogenesis in humans via the FAS contributes to circulating triglycerides levels. Together with re-esterification of free fatty acids in plasma it contributes to around 50% of the triglyceride levels whereas the remaining 50% are stemming from the breakdown and absorption of dietary lipoproteins and from fat stores in the body.
It should be noted that lipogenesis studies in healthy, non-obese humans suggest that lipogenesis via the FAS system is not a major pathway in terms of conversion and secretion to triglycerides. Therefore, inhibition of the FAS in healthy, non-obese humans is considered generally not to be an effective way to reduce the fat content in the body. However, from studies in mice it was concluded that inhibitors of the FAS are also responsible for a reduced food intake and for body weight loss that could be attributed to fat loss.
Moreover, studies in obese humans and patients suffering from diabetes indicate that hypertriglyceridema is strongly associated with carbohydrate intake most likely to be due to conversion of metabolites of the glycolysis to lipids via de novo lipogenesis.
Obesity is caused by the results of an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Excess energy is stored in fat cells that enlarge or increase in number. Moreover, obesity is a strong risk factor for various diseases, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, arteriosclerosis, and diabetes. Therefore, an effective way to prevent obesity is to inhibit fat absorption from intestine.
Pancreatic lipase is a key enzyme for lipid absorption. It is known that dietary fat is not directly absorbed from the intestine unless it has been subjected to the action of pancreatic lipase. Thereby, to suppress weight gain, it would be effective to reduce fat absorption by lipase inhibition.
Therefore, a need exists for composition that can help alleviate one or more of these pervasive conditions and/or method that provide suitable compositions, particularly from naturally occurring sources.